Free Ahead in the Heat by Lorelie Brown

girl she’d been expected to be.
    She spun on the balls of her feet, which were aching. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in heels this long. Sudden awareness of the way her feet throbbed also set her up to notice everything else that was wrong with her. The backs of her kneesached, and so did her lower back. She was hungry. Something like pissiness settled in the knot between her shoulder blades.
    Sean wasn’t even looking at her. He had pulled up two computer screens, plus he had just put his phone to his ear. If she left, he wouldn’t notice.
    Except for some reason, she couldn’t do it. This was the last place she should be . . . but she couldn’t think of anywhere to go.
    She slipped off her heels instead.
    “Hey, bro,” Sean said into the phone. “Crisis mode over here. And no, I’m not overreacting.”
    She didn’t intentionally listen in while he gave the person on the other end of the line a fast but efficient rundown of what had happened with the owner of WavePro. The guy had been doing his best, but he’d had shit information to pass.
    She turned her attention to a different set of charts, these ones color coded and covered in names she’d heard. Slater. Wright. Crews. These were all the members of the ’CT. Westin had all their stats posted, from all their points down to their height and approximate weight. He had listed the types of boards they rode and where they got them from. He charted sponsorships, team divisions, and coaches.
    It was all there. Charts and spreadsheets. Covered in ink from handwritten annotations.
    “Didn’t I ask you to stay in the kitchen?” said Sean’s curling, stroking voice over her shoulder.
    She spun. Her skirt whirled out. She kept her arms locked over her stomach by pure force of will. “Sean . . . you’re a fucking fraud, aren’t you?”

Chapter 9
    “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, but you’re not supposed to be in here.”
    “Why? Is it your private space?” She made her eyes wide and, leaning forward, dropped her voice as if she were telling a secret. “Have I stumbled into the bat cave? You’re not hiding a cape and a utility belt, are you?”
    He lifted a single eyebrow. “You’ve got a fetish for superheroes, don’t you? Tell me, Annie. Does Superman get your panties wet?”
    She made a dismissive noise, wrinkling her nose. “God, no. That guy wouldn’t know his way around Lois Lane’s panties if she tied them to a stick and waved them like a flag.”
    Rather than laugh at her, he buried it. “If I’m remembering correctly, I left you in the kitchen.”
    “All you said was ‘Feel free to get a drink.’”
    He crossed his arms over his chest, only to realize that meant he was mimicking her posture. He didn’t shift, though. There was no sense in giving her more power than she already had. “I did. When I left you in the kitchen.”
    “I didn’t realize it was a prison.” Apparently she could give her mouth a stubborn cast when she wanted. The babydoll bow disappeared, leavingbehind a sultry, displeased woman. “You’re going to have to work on your skills if that’s how you mean to keep women confined.”
    “I don’t generally intend to go into kidnapping as a hobby,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “It didn’t seem like that much for you to stay where you were while I made a call.”
    Her mouth opened, then closed again. She pinned him with a look from under her straight-line brows, but dashed it away.
    “Spit it out.” He wanted to touch her. But she had all the signs that said
Hands off
, and for all his shortcomings, he’d never once touched a woman who didn’t want it. There was enough nasty shit in his history, things he’d done that made him an awful human, without adding taking advantage of women on top of it.
    She shook her head.
    “Spit it out,” he repeated.
    She dropped her hands to her hips with a heaving sigh. “You didn’t leave me when I needed